RAM's Forgotten History: How We Got to Modern Memory
RAM: the forgotten history (2024)
The history of computer memory is often overlooked, yet RAM constraints held back personal computing until the late 20th century. From Konrad Zuse's relay-based Z3 to mercury delay lines and magnetic core memory, early engineers devised ingenious ways to store bits. This article traces the evolution of working memory, highlighting the forgotten pioneers and technologies that paved the way for today's DRAM and SRAM.
We conflate it with the evolution of bulk data storage and computer I/O and keep forgetting that RAM constraints were the most significant drag on personal computing until the final years of the 20th century.
- myself248
An unsung benefit of core memory's non-volatility is that, decades later, forgotten core stacks discovered in storage might still retain whatever data they held when they were powered off.
You just only get one chance to read it.
I'm not aware of any good writeups of such discoveries, though.